Vacation Pics!

I'm just going to lead off with this because it's hilarious!

We were at the beach last week. By ourselves Friday night through Wednesday afternoon but Wednesday night, Tyler, Hudson, PD, Lainey, and part of the Denny family joined us! We had a great time. At least a couple of blog posts worth! Back to the photo, Autumn wasn't angry or crazy (craziER than usual, at least)...I caught her mid-yawn. When I was scrolling through the photos, I laughed so hard that everyone wanted to see the photo, including Hudson who then had to reenact the yawn.

I figure this post I'll go with mostly non-beachy photos, although I do have a couple of super short but funny videos for the end. I need to get pictures from Mike because he got some great ones. I might even see if he'll do a post! Speaking of Mike, here he is helping Autumn with her summer math. I got this math skills book for students between first and second grade. Mike and I are terrible at math so we're trying to help Autumn not become us!

Lainey and PD got a sofa this trip! It was a resounding success with Autumn. She found niches for her friends...

And got in a few acrobatics. She taught Tyler how to do an aikido front roll to an upside down position last week so...sorry, Leah and Ryan.

We don't have cable so Autumn only gets to watch Octonauts (which is great--Mike and I decided it's steampunk for kids) and Doc McStuffins at the beach or at someone's house. Access to Doc McStuffins has set Autumn on a major doctoring of animals run. On the way to dinner, Kiri got a full checkup, including her blood pressure. Ah, I just remembered that Mike has a fantastic picture of Tyler and Autumn doctoring the animals together!

She and Tyler also did a ton of Booboos Be Gone pictures. This is one of Autumn's. We need to have an apostrophe conversation, it seems.

We finally went to the snow cone stand which was very much like a beach-side Jerry's. Someone liked hers quite a bit. She also made a bunch of little friends! They all hung out and played horse shoes together. Autumn was quite the socialite last week. She made a friend at the ice cream shop, too.

Oh, haha, this one should have been at the top. I tried to get a picture of these monkeys smiling. Not a single on with all of them looking at me or with all of them making a picture face. But the silly photo? Perfect.

Hey, look at us! It's actually a great photo of all three of us!! This was at the fireworks which I'm going to post about at Passing Pinwheels. Mainly because I went on a ferris wheel AND IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE. Roller coaster? Yes. Ferris Wheels? NOPE.

Teehee. This is how Lainey and Mrs. Donna rode to the fireworks.

Ok, two seriously short videos and we're done. The first couple of days, the waves were too fun! Not the biggest but still nice to play in. And it was so warm that I got in with no drama. I do not like cold water.


Later, after Tyler got in town, he and Autumn had the best time doing all kinds of crazy stuff together. The one that made me laugh so hard was what I'm calling sand surfing. They'd get on the little boards and let the waves take them to and fro while they giggled like maniacs. At the beginning of the video, you'll hear Mike talking about the chillest crab in the world. It washed up by Hudson and just froze. It let us pet it and everything. Mike finally helped it back into the water. Another one came up later and tried to take us out so I'm guessing it was the same crab out for revenge. He was thwarted when PD put some sand on him and Mr. Crab decided just to sit in the sand a while. ANYWAY, Tyler and Autumn get going pretty well at the end of this one.


All that fun ended in great naps! We'll wrap it up with some hard sleepin'!

At the Beach!

I can't believe I let the family blog go this long!! I wasn't feeling well last week and the week before we were getting back from vacation so there you go. Here are some fun beach pictures! Oh, and there are more on the pinwheel blog.

One of the days we were at the beach, there was a jellyfish invasion!  There was a sad Autumn.


But we did get some beach time. The end of the week brought storms so the ocean was pretty cool. Lots of those people who ski using parachutes. I loooove this picture of Mike and Autumn!


Tyler and Hudson joined us while the rest of their family went to Hawaii. They were, as always, hilarious and very self-entertaining!


Hudson really liked doing this but I only had the energy to do it a few times, haha. Pd and I traded off until we just couldn't do it anymore. But he had fun and really liked me until I told him he had to sit and read with Autumn and Tyler while Pd ran an errand and it was just us. He snubbed me after that!! I laughed so hard.


We went back to the little amusement park where Miss Daredevil likes to show off her race car driver roots and pass ALL THE CARS. Here she is edging past Tyler...


And then cackling like a maniac over it!


Mike and I did the sky coaster! It only took me a YEAR to talk him into it. It was super fun although you can see Mike had some concerns going in.


On the fourth, we went to a fair and watched the fireworks. It took many, many tries but I got a decent picture with the three of them.


Autumn had SO MUCH FUN on these swings. They were really, really fast so I was surprised she enjoyed it so much. I guess she really is a bit of a thrill seeker.


All together, it wasn't a bad trip, despite the rain and jellyfish!

A Very Summery Week

The Goal:


The Progress: Today I pushed the cart at Costco. Then I rested on the couch for half an hour to recover.

:P In all seriousness, though, that really is progress. It was kind of funny/weird, by the end of the cart pushing, my legs were so tired. But I guess I can't complain! This past week I seem to have improved quite a bit. No pain pills at all and I can walk farther and do more than one errand at a time. Not too shabby!

It worked out really well that I felt pretty decent this week. Autumn's Mother's Day Out was closed for the week so I planned some things to keep us occupied. We went back to the sprinkler park with a few friends. Autumn had fun playing in the sprinklers but she seemed to most enjoy filling and emptying her bucket. For like half an hour.


Oh, and Monday Nanny and Boppa came over to have dinner with us. While dinner was in the oven (an awesome lasagna that Lainey made us before she went to the beach--thank you!), we played Autumn's Super Why ABC game. Boppa won.


And then after dinner, we skyped with Tyler and the rest of the family who went to Florida. Nanny and Boppa had never skyped before so it was kind of fun to be there for their first time.


We got together with my mom on Saturday. She got Autumn a small pool. At first all Autumn wanted was her watering can so she could return to filling and emptying.


But then she got tired of that and requested some additional toys. I thought she was pretty funny chilling in her ring. After she was done swimming (or, splashing around, really), she carried buckets of water to different plants in the back yard. Yay for chores that seem like playing!


We've been slowly getting back into our old routines. To an extent, at least. Autumn and I went to the dojo Saturday to see whoever showed up for Aikido. It was so nice to see everyone and to be in the dojo, if a little (like everything tends to be lately) bittersweet since I'm not sure when I can train again.

We also went back to church today. Penny came with us and it was so nice to have her there. The sermon series that is starting is wildly appropriate for us: The God of Rest and it is about fear and anxiety. I think I'm going to pick up a copy of the book that they recommended reading as part of this series, Running Scared by Edward Welch.

Well, today before she went to bed, Autumn sat down next to me where I was reading on the couch and said she was going to read me a story. This was her story:

"Today, I am going to tell you a true story about God's love. God loves you. And God loves me. And it's a true story in the Bible. The End."

:) She went on to tell about 6 more stories but that one was the most coherent. I think her sunday school teacher and the storyteller at church would be very pleased that Autumn is paying at least some attention. Such a funny girl.


Hopefully next week I'll have a couple short videos to share with you guys!

Milestones and water time

Today is a momentous day. I made green beans and (instant!) mashed potatoes to go with one of the frozen meals a friend brought over this week. Give me a week or two and I might be making some real meals! See, it's the little things, haha. The doctor also told me my blood is doing a great job recovering and she gave me clearance to stop taking the blood pressure meds I was on. Now the trick is to not regress by trying to do too much...and I very much appreciate Mike who is doing waaay more than he ought to be doing!

Oh, and I hope everyone has had a great Fourth of July weekend. We've mostly been taking it easy and doing stuff like relearning how to play our characters in Warcraft...one of those things that can be a little bittersweet because it's nice to be playing together again (we had taken a break because we were really busy) but it's one of those things that we wouldn't be doing for another couple of months if life had gone according to plan. I did take a break from being a complete nerd yesterday to take Autumn over to Penny's mom's to swim. They showered her with fun and prizes, including her new princess swimming ring which has also made an appearance in the tub and as a doll corral since we brought it home. :)


She and Penny played telephone with a noodle, too.


Penny and Ms. Scarlett even fed us lunch. Autumn had a great time although she was a little weird when she got tired. And later she told Mike, "I had fun but I didn't talk to Penny's mama because I was shy." Before she got really weird, I snapped this one.


Earlier this week, we did some more water playing. A few of us (including Aunt Lindsay) went early Wednesday morning which is when they have an under 6 years old time.


This is a terrible picture of Autumn but you have to see Roxie's face. She really, really wanted a granola bar but she doesn't have, well, molars. So it wasn't happening and she could only gaze longingly at the granola bar.


She had a blast running through the various sprinklers and sprays but by about 11am Autumn was done. The first clue was when she decided to sit on the blanket away from everyone with her back to all of us. :)


Funny girl.

Mixed Bag...

I've been a little blah, haha. I haven't taken a ton of pictures and I've got a book review post I want to do but I'm just all kinds of meh about things. I think the heat is making me all slow and drowsy. :P I like a cat, as Autumn would say. So here are a few photos and updates. First! We have living room walls! And a ceiling!


Of course, the bad news is that this means I have to start painting again soon. Sigh. Also, my summer aikido class had its end of the summer party on Thursday. We did a circuit of games and activities we did over the last few weeks and ended with some Japanese sweets. The next session begins on September 7 and will run for 6 weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:45-4:45 for anyone who is interested. I wish I had video of those first classes. It's been pretty amazing to watch the class evolve from chaos to a group of kids who could actually do a couple techniques. This is most of them:


Since we moved in two weeks ago, we've had a series of firsts. This week was Autumn's first bath in the new, big tub. That was horrible because it involved first getting the tub clean enough for her to bathe in. ::shudder:: The first week, we cleared enough of the garage to park one car in it. I made my first meal the Thursday after we moved in. And, yesterday, Papa D brought Autumn her first serving of rainbow frozen yogurt to be eaten in the new house. She was thrilled.


And, here are a few stray photos from July. These are from Lainey and Papa D's 4th of July party. Mike and Autumn, playing in the water slide pool. I wonder why she scrunches up her face like that whenever anyone tells her to smile. :)


This is like a photograph that could describes me and Mike without words. hahaha. Mike=grumpy, Sharaze=happy.


Ok, how awesome is this? Autumn got some serious air here! I'm tempted to make one of those lolcats out of this. Maybe "invisible bike."


Like this, for those not in the know about lolcats.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Ha!